Goebel v. Hodges

64 S.E.2d 207, 83 Ga. App. 574, 1951 Ga. App. LEXIS 912
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 27, 1951
Docket33220
StatusPublished

This text of 64 S.E.2d 207 (Goebel v. Hodges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goebel v. Hodges, 64 S.E.2d 207, 83 Ga. App. 574, 1951 Ga. App. LEXIS 912 (Ga. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

MacIntyre, P. J.

Mrs. Alberta Hodges brought an action for damages for personal injuries in the Municipal Court of Savannah against A. S. Goebel and Margaret Goebel. The defendants demurred to the petition upon the ground that the court was without jurisdiction to entertain and dispose of cases involving injuries to the person. The court overruled the demurrer and the defendants excepted.

By the amendment of 1912 to Art. VI, Sec. VII, Par. I of the Constitution of 1877 the General Assembly was authorized to abolish justice of the peace courts in cities having a population of over 20,000, except in the City of Savannah, and to establish in lieu thereof new courts in such cities to exercise jurisdiction formerly exercised by justice of the peace courts and such additional jurisdiction as might be conferred by law. By the amendment'of 1914 of the same section the exception as to the City of Savannah was removed. Code, § 2-3501. Pursuant to this last amendment the General Assembly established the Municipal Court of Savannah by the act of 1915 (Ga. L. 1915, pp. 124-137). By section 3 of that act it was provided, “That the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Savannah as to civil [575]*575and criminal matters shall in all respects be the same as the jurisdiction of justices’ courts in the County of Chatham at the date of the passage of this Act, and in addition thereto, the said court shall have jurisdiction in trover and in bail- trover proceedings, in which the value of the property sued for, exclusive of hire, does not exceed the principal sum of one hundred dollars.”

By the act of 1927 (Ga. L., 1927, p. 455-464) the act of 1915 was amended, increasing and defining the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Savannah. Section 2 of the act of 1927 provided: “Be it further enacted, that the said Municipal Court of Savannah, in addition to the usual jurisdiction of justices’ courts of this State, shall have jurisdiction within the corporate limits of the City of Savannah and also without such limits in Chatham County, concurrent with the superior court, to try and dispose of all civil cases or proceedings of whatever nature, ex contractu or ex delicto, under the common law or by statute, in which the principal sum sworn to or claimed to be due, or the value of the property in dispute, does not exceed three hundred dollars, and of which jurisdiction is not vested by the Constitution and laws of the State of Georgia exclusively in other courts. The criminal jurisdiction of said municipal court shall not exceed the jurisdiction now vested by law in the justices’ courts of this State.”

By section 2 of the act of 1937 (Ga. L., 1937, pp. 1203-1210), section 3 of the act of 1915 was amended to read: “That the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Savannah as to civil and criminal matters shall in all respects be the same as the jurisdiction of justices’ courts in the County of Chatham at the date of the passage of this Act, and in addition thereto, the said court shall have jurisdiction in trover and in bail trover proceedings in which the value of the property sued for, exclusive of hire, does not exceed the principal sum of one hundred ($100) dollars, and shall also have jurisdiction of actions to recover penalties which may be sued for under the laws of Georgia, but in no case shall said court have jurisdiction to render judgment for more than three hundred ($300) dollars exclusive of interest, and said court shall have jurisdiction to take and entertain pleas of guilty in misdemeanor cases by consent of defendant [576]*576and impose sentence as provided by law when such cases shall have origin in said court by virtue of warrants issued in said court.”

In the act of 1937, the act of 1927 is not mentioned insofar as the act of 1927 affects the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Savannah. By the provisions of the Constitution (Code § 2-1916), “No law, or section of the Code, shall be amended or repealed by mere reference to its title, or to the number of the section of the Code, but the amending, or repealing act, shall distinctly describe the law to be amended or repealed, as well as'the alteration to be made.”

It has been held by both the Supreme Court and this court, however, that “ 'subsequent legislation repeals previous inconsistent legislation, whether it expressly declares such repeal or not. In the nature of things it would be so, not only on the theory of intention, but because contradictions can not stand together. The intention' to repeal, however, will not be presumed, nor the effect of repeal admitted, unless the inconsistency is unavoidable.’ ” Adcock v. State, 60 Ga. App. 207, 208 (3 S. E. 2d, 597), and citations.

In an effort to illustrate the intention of the legislature and demonstrate the consistency of the two acts (act of 1937 and act of 1927) we propose to requote that section of the act of 1937 dealing with the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Savannah and to insert in italics the pertinent portions of the section of the act of 1927 which also deal with that court’s jurisdiction, but to which no reference is made in the act of 1937; and in order to delineate the gradual expansion of that court’s jurisdiction we have numbered in brackets each such increase in jurisdiction: “Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Savannah as to civil and criminal matters shall in all respects be [1] the same as the jurisdiction of justices’ courts in the County of Chatham at the date of the passage of this Act, and [2] in addition thereto, the said court' shall have jurisdiction in trover and in bail trover proceedings in which the value of the property sued for, exclusive of hire, does not exceed the principal sum of one hundred ($100.00) dollars, . . [and] in addition to the usual jurisdiction of justices’ courts of this State, shall have [577]*577jurisdiction within the corporate limits of the City of Savannah and also without such limits in Chatham County, concurrent with the superior court, [S] to try and dispose of all civil cases or proceedings of whatever nature, ex contractu or ex delicto, under the common law or by statute, in which the principal sum sworn to or claimed to be due, or the value of the property in dispute, does not exceed three hundred dollars, and of which jurisdiction is not vested by the Constitution and laws of the State of Georgia exclusively in other courts . . , and shall also have jurisdiction [4] of actions to recover penalties which may be sued for under the laws of Georgia, but in no case shall said court have jurisdiction to render judgment for more than three hundred ($300.00) dollars exclusive of interest, and said court shall have jurisdiction [5] to take and entertain pleas of guilty in misdemeanor cases by consent of defendant and impose sentence as provided by law when such cases shall have origin in said' court by virtue of warrants issued in said court.”

When the Municipal Court of Savannah was first established by the act of 1915, the General Assembly conferred upon that court jurisdiction such as was formerly possessed by the justices’ courts in Chatham County and in addition that court was given jurisdiction of trover and bail trover proceedings where the value of the property, exclusive of hire, did not exceed $100.00.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 S.E.2d 207, 83 Ga. App. 574, 1951 Ga. App. LEXIS 912, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goebel-v-hodges-gactapp-1951.